DNA Update – October 2025
Earlier in the week I had an e-mail from Ancestry.Com with a MAJOR update on my DNA stuff. It actually solved a mystery (by eliminating it completely) and added – at least potentially – another in its place. Part of the reason for the update is improvements in their algorithm as well as having more data to analyse. Here’s what they said...
The mystery that I was struggling with – in that it was quite THE headscratcher – was my apparent Scottish ancestry. Although I haven’t gone too far back into my father's Irish side, I have gone back deep into the 15th century on my mother’s side without a SINGLE Scottish relative. My latest DNA results explain that by not showing ANY Scottish DNA at all – none. Therefore, my head no longer needs so much attention. Now the results show, as I fully expected from the start, that the majority of my DNA originated in Ireland. Interesting it's from ALL over Ireland – from the East coast (where my dad was from), to the far South and to the Northwest. It seems that my DNA liked to ‘get about’ a bit! Now as I completely expected I have 75% Irish DNA.
The rest (or at least MOST of the rest) is, yet again, completely expected. 13% is from North Wales and Northwest England – where I was born and where I’ve found most of my English side relatives lived in the last 100 years or so. Again, completely expected, is the fact that 8% of my DNA comes from the West Midlands which is where my maternal grandmother is from. A mere 2% is from Devon & Somerset which is interesting but certainly not particularly strange. The STRANGE bit is that last 2%.
Well within the margin of error is the interesting hint of 2% of my DNA being SPANISH. The rational side of me thinks that it came from a visiting Spanish sailor who ‘got lucky’ in a port in the Southwest and then went home to his family on the Cantabrian Coast. Of course, the more romantic side of my nature wonders if the guy in question (assuming it WAS a guy) was shipwrecked on the Irish coast on the way back from the failed Spanish Armada attack on England in 1588 and an Irish girl took a shine to his dark and brooding looks.... I doubt if I’ll ever find a Spanish name in the records though – but stranger things have happened.
Either way it's an interesting update. Maybe a little ‘boring’ and ‘obvious’ but a really nice hint of the exotic. I’m amused if nothing else. I do have some Ancestry related reading to come. I wonder what I’ll discover?
3 comments:
I find it entertaining sometimes and annoying at other times. My annoyance is that I should be around 25% Scandinavian or Swedish (max) because I know DNA mixtures aren’t exact. I’ve traced my Swedish ancestry back to 1689. Ancestry no longer says I have any Swedish ancestry but says I’m 3% Norwegian. I can tell I am Swedish at least back to the early 1800s because of the very strong family resemblance in family photos from Sweden when they emigrated to the US. My DNA test also shows the bloodline links up through the Swedish lines of my family tree, so I don’t understand their algorithm. Are none of my Swedish family DNA links Swedish?
I'm not sure exactly HOW (or indeed IF) the algorithm works. I think a lot of it relates to people in particular areas expressing various bits of DNA - so those bits are labelled Swedish, Scottish or Spanish... I don't think that DNA really works that way though... [grin] But if you have Swedish ancestors in the written record then I strongly suggest that you have Swedish DNA in your cells. Makes complete sense to me. The vanishing Scottish DNA made complete sense because I have yet to come across ANY Scottish ancestors - at least on my Mothers side of things.
Yeah, I’ve “lost” DNA too which didn’t bother me since I knew it didn’t exist in the tree.
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